(Devil Doesn't Want Us and) Heaven's Bouncers Won't Let Us In
by Saral Hylor
Summary: They walked away from the crater that had been the Port of LA. They shouldn't have walked away. There was nothing left to walk away from. They walked away, but their sights are still set on Max. And even death won't stop them from getting revenge. Part 2 of 25 Seconds 'verse Warning: Temporary character death, canon typical violence, eventual Cougar/Jensen (lots of pre-slash)
1. Vigil

Part 2 of the 25 Seconds'verse. This is when it gets interesting.

* * *

**Vigil**

Cougar sat vigil that night, the cold and damp had set in early, sending the rest of the Losers to seek shelter in the back of the van. With his back against one tyre, hat tipped down over his eyes, he huddled inside his jacket. He didn't want to look at the body laid out on the ground a few feet away; too still and silent and so different from what it had been like in life. He didn't want to see those blue eyes clouded over with death, the skin that was too pale, the mouth that was slack and unsmiling. He didn't want to see the broad chest that had been ripped apart with bullets. So he shielded his eyes behind his hat and just listened.

The night itself was far from silent, the subtle whisper of a breeze, the soft movements of nocturnal creatures through the surrounding landscape. It all fell unnaturally quiet; setting the sniper on edge, he knew what was coming, but braced himself all the same, waiting for the first sign.

That first ragged, painful breath echoed through the cold night, causing Cougar to flinch in spite of himself. There was a suspended moment of silence before another agonised breath, followed by a pitiful groan. The sniper finally let himself relax, but did not look up.

"Aww, fuck, that one hurt." Jensen rasped, blinking up at the starry sky, one hand coming up to rub the phantom ache from his chest. He knew Cougar was there, without even looking. Cougar was always there. He also knew that Cougar would be giving him the cold shoulder again; he said what he knew the sniper would not be able to ignore. "But hell it was fun, should definitely do that again."

The sharp kick was well aimed, catching the hacker in one numb thigh, causing him to squawk and try to roll away. Cougar straightened his hat up in order to glare at the blond haired man, knowing it was safe to look at him now that he was whole and alive again.

Jensen slowly sat up, trying to stretch the cold out of his body. "Jeez, you guys just dumped me here out in the cold. Bloody lovely that is. If I catch pneumonia now and die, I'll be pissed off."

The sniper just glared, which was nothing unusual, it was the greeting Jensen usually got. Grinning in response, the hacker dragged himself over to the other man, still waiting for the pins and needles to fade from the lower half of his body. Dropping onto his back, head rested in Cougar's lap, he smiled at him in the most innocent fashion he could manage until the glare faltered marginally, the worry lines on his forehead relaxing.

"It's not like I meant it to happen, this time anyway. Don't have to be such a grumpy kitty, anyone would think you missed me." Jensen rubbed at his chest again, the lingering pain making him expect for his hand to come away slick with blood. "Could have changed my shirt for me though, you fucker. Do you know how uncomfortable blood stiffened clothes are? No, never mind, of course you do, I'm not the only dumbass to get shot, now am I? But for some reason, I'm the only one who gets given a hard time about it."

Cougar let himself relax, turning his face away from the smiling idiot. It was true; they'd all been shot, and hadn't always survived. "You die more than the rest of us. That was eight. Next time, you might not come back."

"Such a spoil sport, Cougs." Jensen huffed, rolling his eyes. "Now, you're either going hafta gay up and cuddle me, or help me into the van, 'cause I'm freezing my nuts off. You know, dead, lack of blood flow, and being left outside in the middle of winter, not fun."

Cougar scowled in response, pushing the hacker off of him in order to stand up. After stretching his own stiff muscles, he helped Jensen to his feet, not surprised when he ended up bearing most of the other man's weight.

"Sorry, dude, legs are still waking up." Jensen's smile said he was anything but sorry, eyes bright as he let himself be propped up against the side of the van as Cougar opened the door.

The rest of the Losers looked over as the door opened, each looking relieved in their own way at the sight of the hacker.

Jensen beamed at them, practically falling into the back of the van and dragging himself into a relatively comfortable position, leaving enough space for Cougar to sit next to him. "No need to worry, guys, I'm back, larger than life and twice as beautiful. Good as new! Though no thanks to you lot. It's cold out there, and all you wimps are hiding out in here hogging all the blankets. Don't expect me to take care of you next time it's one of you that's corpse-a-fied."

It wasn't much of a surprise when Roque hurled a blanket at his face, growling "Why does he have to get more annoying each time?"


	2. Mystery of the Unexplained

They'd walked away from the crater that had been the Port of LA after Clay had been unsuccessful in retrieving the remote pressure trigger.

They shouldn't have walked away. There was nothing left to walk away from.

It was put down as sheer dumb luck, or a 'mystery of the unexplained' as Jensen delightfully dubbed it. Things had gone on, Pooch had made it in time to witness the birth of his son, Jensen had dragged the whole team along to watch a Petunias game, and then they were back to it again. Despite Roque's betrayal it was better than before, Clay acted like a soldier again, Pooch had his life back, Cougar stopped distancing himself and didn't need as much proof that they were alive, and Jensen stopped grinning like a dead man.

The hacker had been the first to go down, taking a bullet to the back of the head when he'd infiltrated the server room of another company they'd linked to Max. They'd managed to get in and retrieve his body.

They were on their way back to the old warehouse they'd been holed up in when _it_ happened. Jensen's body was in the back of the van; they had no idea what to do with it, they were all still legally dead, but they couldn't just leave him there, or bury him in some abandoned lot. In any case, as Pooch pointed out, his sister and niece had the right to make a decision on what would become of the remains.

None of them spoke, not even Aisha; they all sat silently, Pooch concentrating on driving as though his life depended on it. Cougar had Jensen's glasses in his breast pocket, the blood splattered laptop cradled against his chest.

The noise of the engine drowned out the first gasp for air, and the following small noises of pain. They were all so intent on not looking at the body that they didn't notice the first movements. Nothing drowned out the indignant exclamation that followed.

"Ow, shit, my head!"

Pooch swore, jerked the wheel, sending the van swerving to one side, it mounted the kerb and came to a sudden halt. They scrambled out of the van, Aisha and Clay drawing guns and rounding on the back of the vehicle, pulling the doors open.

Jensen lay where they had placed him, touching the back of his head carefully, blinking up at them, eyes unfocused. "What the hell happened? Please don't tell me I did something lame like fainted and smacked my head."

Cougar stood there, frozen in place, because people didn't just wake up from a bullet to the back of the head. He crossed himself instinctively; the movement caught the hacker's attention, eyes squinting as he tried to make out their forms. The sniper acted on impulse, fishing the glasses out of his pocket and handing them over.

Glasses on and able to see again, Jensen glanced around at them, eyes going wide at the sight of the guns Aisha and Clay had trained on him, confusion printed clearly across his face. He raised his hands cautiously in surrender. "Okay, what's going on? Whatever it was, it wasn't my fault this time, I promise."

Clay cleared his throat, Pooch made a sound as though he was about to talk then changed his mind, but it was Cougar who actually spoke first.

"You died."

"Uh, did not." Jensen's face creased further in confusion, but he made no move to sit up or get out of the van.

"Yes, you did." Aisha countered, hands tensing around the gun slightly. "You got shot in the head, your brains blew out the front of your skull. You were dead."

The thoughts seemed to process through the hacker's, now whole, brain, before he offered, with mock helpfulness, "I got better?"

They weren't sure what caused it, but Jensen had been dead, and was suddenly alive again. His head was pounding; it was almost a relief when he promptly went to sleep when they finally got back. Cougar hovered around him, checking vital signs every half hour, while Clay, Pooch and Aisha put their heads together trying to figure out what had happened.

A few hours later Jensen was up and about again, as though nothing had happened. He didn't really believe them until he went to use his laptop again.

"Oh my god! There are brains in my keyboard!"


	3. The Certainty of Life is Death

Clay's first death was during a bar fight in a town in Mexico. They'd retreated over the border to let things cool off a bit following Jensen's first death, Pooch opting to head off with Jolene and the baby instead. It was supposed to be a couple of weeks downtime, to rest and recuperate, though Jensen spent the entire time hunched over his laptop trying to find a plausible reason for what had happened. Apparently 'because I'm too awesome for death' was not a good enough reason in anyone's eyes except his own.

He'd still been hunched over the laptop when Aisha and Cougar returned to their motel room, carrying a lifeless Clay between them. There was blood all the way down the front of his shirt, a jagged gash across his throat, courtesy of a broken bottle. They lay him down on the bed and waited, watching; Cougar muttering prayers in Spanish under his breath, Aisha pacing at the end of the bed, flicking a small knife over and over in her hand. Jensen kept his fingers on Clay's wrist, waiting for the first a sign of a pulse.

As they watched, the wound on his neck knit itself back together, the skin pulling seamlessly back into place. A weak pulse fluttered beneath Jensen's fingers and then the former Colonel drew in a ragged breath, choked, then breathed again, his eyes snapping open and hands going to his throat. The moment of panic ended when his hands came away clean of blood; questioning eyes sought out Jensen's, searching for clarification. The hacker shrugged, grinned and gave the older man an O.K sign.

A stray bullet through the windscreen took Pooch in the chest as they made a getaway a month later. The vehicle swerved wildly until Cougar lunged over from the passenger seat, abandoning his rifle in favour of grabbing the steering wheel. Jensen reached under the sniper, dragging their driver out of the way so Cougar could drop into the driver's seat. They drove like that, with Pooch half dragged out of the seat, one leg still in the foot well, Cougar wedged in beside him, Jensen's hands pushed tightly against his chest in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

In the chaos of it all, they hadn't even noticed he'd died until they'd finally got to their safe house; the four of them were still running on an adrenaline high as they carted Pooch in side, setting him down on the kitchen floor to wait it out. He came back spluttering and demanding to know whose lousy-arse driving got him killed.

Aisha didn't tell them what had happened to her the first time. They found her in the aftermath, pale and numb, slumped against a wall, gun in her lap, eyes deadly as ever. She refused to say what had happened, and initially fought off the offer of help until it became evident that she could not move by herself.

They discussed the similarities in hushed tones as Clay and Jensen helped Aisha along, Cougar covering them, as they made their way to where Pooch was picking them up. There seemed to be a lingering pain afterwards, that'd hang around for hours, despite the fast healing, and numbness, pins and needles, in the body, though the time until recovery varied.

Cougar was better at staying alive than the rest of them, you had to find a sniper to kill him after all. Jensen, who had a severe lack of self-preservation beforehand, became more reckless, dying twice – the second time being yet another run in with a bullet a month after Aisha died – while the sniper was still on zero.


	4. We Meet Again, Old Friend

Roque reappeared four months after the clusterfuck that was the Port of LA. He walked into the abandoned hanger they were using as a base, claiming to be unarmed, and offering to give them information on Max.

They declined.

By shooting him.

Clay sat with his corpse until Roque drew his first breath, and then he shot him point blank between the eyes and settled back down to wait again.

When he came to again, the first thing he did was lock eyes with Clay, and start trying to explain himself again. "I didn't side with Max, I was playing him to try and find out what the fuck was going on."

Clay lowered his gun, but didn't put it away. "Then why not tell the rest of us that?"

"Because you never would have gone for it, Clay, all you cared about was getting back at him. You stopped caring about your men, or getting them home. If it wasn't for that bitch, we'd still be stuck in Bolivia." Roque groaned as he tried to move. "Jesus, what is up with this shit? You shot me, twice. Why am I alive?"

Clay shrugged, glancing around the hanger at the rest of his team. Pooch busy under the bonnet of the Jeep they were currently using, throwing careful glances their way occasionally. Aisha stood by the doorway, not even hiding the fact she was watching and listening to their conversation. Jensen and Cougar were in the far corner, the sniper sitting on a bench, his rifle across his lap, the hacker on the floor, leaning back against Cougar's legs, laptop propped on one knee. They were both trying to hide that they were watching.

"We haven't figured that out yet. With you added into the mix, Jensen thinks it might link back to the Port of LA. None of us should have walked out of that." Clay trained his eyes back on his former SIC, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. "You give us decent intel on Max, but you're staying behind when we go check it out. With one of us. That way, if you're crossing us again, whoever is left will have fun killing you until you don't get up again."

Roque nodded, finally able to sit up again, digging in his pocket, ignoring the way it made Clay's gun twitch back towards him. "I've got several flash drives of stuff I took off him, give it to J and see what he can make of it. Not a set up this time."

The information was good; they followed a money trail to a shipping yard that turned out to be the cover for an underground terrorist operation. People with no qualms, and enough money to purchase a snuke off of Max.

They snuck in under the cover of darkness, Cougar setting up on the highest warehouse roof, hunkering down with his rifle to offer surveillance, and covering fire in need be. Pooch waited with the jeep, and a handcuffed Roque, promising only to kill him a little bit. Aisha, Clay and Jensen covered the ground, running the search and destroy operation. The plan was, to find the snuke, disarm it if possible, and then hack up any information that might lead them to Max. In short, it was a 'give the hacker as much time as he needs and make sure he gets to job done before getting his arse killed' operation.

Everything ran smoothly to start with, they got in, Jensen got set up and went to work on deactivating the snuke while his laptop was hooked up to the server, syphoning off whatever information it could. Admittedly, it was a terrible position; the room only had one exit point, which Aisha and Clay had set up at.

Things went pear-shaped when a patrol surprised Clay and managed to get a call out before they took him out. The terrorists started to converge on the room, tactical and too well dispersed for Cougar to pick off in time. Jensen was muttering through the comms that he only needed another minute, and then a way out.

The sniper did the best he could, picking off as many of the bad guys as he could, giving away his position. When they returned fire, he shouldered his rifle, and ran across the roof tops, providing a distraction, splitting the enemy in half, giving Clay and Aisha a reasonable number to deal with.

The lucky shot one of the terrorists got in wasn't what killed Cougar, it clipped him in the thigh just as he was about to make a jump from one roof to another. Clay saw him stumble and tip over the edge, having a moment to almost hope the fall had killed him, rather than leaving him severely injured, before he had to get back to concentrating on the gun fight.

They managed to get out of there, Jensen carrying the sniper's broken, lifeless body over one shoulder as Clay and Aisha dispatched the last of terrorists standing between them and their ride out of there. None of them commented when Jensen refused any help with Cougar's body, or questioned him when he piled into the jeep and cradled the smaller man against him.

They were still driving when Cougar came back, quieter than the rest of them, not surprisingly. Jensen more felt the first intake of breath than he heard it, feeling the sniper stir slightly, before his head tipped back and brown eyes stared up at the hacker. A weary salute was the only response Cougar could bother to give to the relieved grin and delighted, slightly manic exclamation of "It's alive!"


End file.
